The Director's Captive

She's been building a case on his firm for two years. He just made her his prisoner.

Damien Roth doesn't raise his voice. He doesn't need to. As Head of Intelligence at AEGIS Solutions, he has other methods—and when investigative journalist Lena Bauer gets too close to a story that could burn his world to the ground, he uses them.

She disappears quietly. No scene, no struggle. Just a car, a safehouse, and the most dangerous man she's ever been alone with asking her one question she has no intention of answering.

Who is your source?

Lena built her case on AEGIS the way she builds everything: methodically, from public records and five years of patience, until she had enough to matter. She knows what this firm is. She knows what Damien is. What she didn't know—what nobody told her—is that she's not the only one who's been working her.

She's not giving him the name. The problem is, she's starting to wonder if the name is worth keeping.

Because the more Damien digs into who's been feeding her information, the more certain he becomes: the leak inside AEGIS isn't protecting her. It's using her. Every piece of real intelligence has been cut with fabrications—a story engineered to detonate, take her down with it, and make sure the truth never sees print.

Someone built Lena Bauer as a weapon. And they aimed her at the firm.

The man who took her prisoner is starting to look like the only person in this story who might actually be on her side. And Damien is running out of reasons to let her leave—and out of time. Whatever his source set in motion is still moving. He just found the thread that leads back to it.

Gefangene des Direktors is the second book in the SCHATTEN & STAHL series. It reads as a standalone dark mafia romance, but the conspiracy threading through the series doesn't stop here—and what Damien finds will change the shape of everything that follows.

Tropes: Captor/captive • Enemies to lovers • Morally grey hero • Forced proximity • Dark obsession • Reluctant protector • Obsessive hero

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